My First Camino!

[benrie]

It is strange how some journeys start, had no idea what a Camino was three weeks ago, Now I am completely consumed by the idea of this fantastic trip.From what I have gathered people return from the Camino with positive experiences,in my case the positives have already started piling up.
Looking forward to meeting fantastic people from all around the world.
The plan is to do a part of the camino del norte, to be precise from gijøn/Leon to Santiago in about 15-16 days(Aug26-sep14), I have no Idea which of these two is better?
The first of many qustions is whether this is a realistic goal!
Are there any good guidebooks one can reccomend?

Dont want to get bogged down with too many questions,.........
I am immensely happy to be part of this fantastic communinty and forum.


Peace and Joy

Richie

 

[Deleted member 3000]

It is a fantastic experience! If you want to temper your enthusiasm with some reality, I suggest that you read the following blog. It is a minority experience being described, but you rarely hear the negatives, and don't see the two dozen hopeful pilgrims that take the train home daily from St. Jean Pied de Port having quit on the first day.

Have fun!

http://karlascamino.wordpress.com/

 

[mikevasey]

The plan is to do a part of the camino del norte, to be precise from gijøn/Leon to Santiago in about 15-16 days(Aug26-sep14), I have no Idea which of these two is better?

Hi, good luck to you on which ever one you decide. If you do decide on the Norte could i suggest that you might consider Oviedo rather than Gijon as a starting point. It is longer by about 4km but the advantage is that if you dont lose the arrows you will not have to walk on dual carriageways which are the feature of the Gijon to Aviles route. There is a also a pilgrim hostel in Oviedo, the one for Gijon is on the other side of it, about 5 km out of town on a campsite. This website http://www.mundicamino.com gives details of the Oviedo to Aviles route. You have language options at the top, the advantage of sticking with spanish is they give you more detailed directions. Pick the Norte(or Northern Way) and go to etapa 21(Oviedo to Aviles).

Good luck

Mike

Just to say i had a look at my post to see if the directions worked, i noticed that Mundicamino doesnt list the pilgrim hostel in Aviles, there is one, it is quite big, a bit shabby but it was very welcoming.

 

[JohnnieWalker]

It is a fantastic experience! If you want to temper your enthusiasm with some reality, I suggest that you read the following blog. It is a minority experience being described, but you rarely hear the negatives, and don't see the two dozen hopeful pilgrims that take the train home daily from St. Jean Pied de Port having quit on the first day.

Have fun!

http://karlascamino.wordpress.com/

As I've observed before Karla's expereince is now considerably out of date and there have been no other such experiences reported that I have come accross. I also just don't believe there are two dozen hopeful pilgrims who quit on the first day.

 

[Deleted member 3000]

I watched the ones giving up limp to the platform at St.-Jean-Pied-de-Port the morning after I arrived there on the Le Puy route. I admit that I don't know what happened the other 364 days that year, so I confess to extrapolating the data, which is very close to fabricating of the data. Still, I think many hopes are dashed on the first day of climbing up. Karla's experience is unique, but you can find similar tales by Tim-the-Canadian and Kaybee Travels in these pages. Not everyone has a great time, and hearing their stories allows prospective pilgrims a perspective that may help them avoid some pitfalls. I hope that I never discourage a pilgrimage.